It's Boom Time
It's Boom Time is the seventh episode of a tabletop RPG show Power Rangers HyperForce. It features the return of Gem as the Ranger Operator Series Gold and the debut of Chronos HyperForce Megazord. Synopsis As they plan their escape from a Grinder production factory, the four HyperForce Rangers attempt to save the heavily corrupted Vesper with the help of the ever-resourceful Gem, a Ranger native to the world taken over by Venjix. Plot The embodiment of the Venjix virus, being conscious and self-aware, expresses intrigue at the foreign technology of the Hyper Force Rangers, particularly the advanced android technology that makes up Vesper's physiology. He commands his Grinders to strip the remaining Rangers of all their weapons and morphers, and they oblige. In the cage outside the factory containing Marv, Chloe, and Jack, Chloe manages to put up some resistance, but the Rangers end up getting zapped and knocked out by the robotic soldiers' taser batons before having their gear stolen. As the Rangers regain consciousness, the ground opens up beneath the cage, drawing it downwards like an elevator. They are greeted by the heat of a forge and the sounds of mechanisms running. Marv remains suspicious of Jack after hearing Vesper's warning, but Jack confirms that his memories and personality haven't been altered after Marv questions him about the incident at Time Force resulting in Marv getting fired, so Marv starts to worry for Eddie. The three Rangers are separated from the refugees and locked in a cell together. Resting in the cell right next to theirs is Eddie. Marv attempts to break the bars so he can reach his teammate, but the cell is much too sturdy. In the cell directly across from them, an oddly upbeat and enthusiastic stranger named Gem explains that Eddie was just recently placed in his cell, so he hadn't been there for very long. Vesper, who had recently been infected with the Venjix virus, appears before everyone. After what seems to be a cheerful greeting, she immediately shoots Marv with her HyperForce Blade Blaster. She then brandishes her Cerberus Axe at Gem. Not wanting anyone else to get hurt, Marv asks her to attack him again. This prompts the eccentric Gem to offer to take an attack as well. Marv and Gem start arguing over who should be attacked, Gem even going as far as to instruct Vesper to slash at him vertically so as not to hit the cell bars. Quickly becoming impatient, Vesper fires a warning shot with her blaster just above Jack's head to silence the two. It doesn't take long for Gem to realize that Vesper is a machine, and this revelation shocks the other Rangers. Eddie wakes up and tells everyone what happened to him. He realizes he's been disarmed as well. Overhearing the HyperForce Rangers using the word "morpher," Gem asks if they're Ranger Operators. He explains that both the Ranger technology of this world and the Venjix virus were created by his BFF, Doctor K. Despite being familiar with how the virus works, he doesn't quite know how to stop it. He tells the Hyper Force Rangers that, much like himself, they're going to be forced to create more Grinders for Venjix's army. Realizing that they're going to need Gem's help since he knows how things work in this factory, Marv affectionately offers him the position of honorary Ranger Operator. To the surprise of the Hyper Force Rangers, Gem reveals that he, himself, is a Ranger already. However, he is unable to morph because his morpher is locked away in the factory's research lab. The others believe that's where their morphers would have been placed, too. Gem reveals that he's formulated an escape plan, but he didn't mind biding his time because more Grinders being produced means that there'll be more to destroy later, considering taking out Grinders more enjoyable than simply not producing them, leaving the others to question his thought process. He also mentions being separated from his sister, Gemma. Every time he was sent out to work these past few months, he had been sneaking parts back to his cell to create a device that would disable the factory's security system so he could escape and find his sister. Now that he's done with his device, he just needs a distraction. The Hyper Force Rangers offer to help fill that role. Chloe suggests using a bomb. Marv tries to protest, but Gem immediately latches onto Chloe's idea, stating that he has enough remaining parts to create some explosives. "It's Boom Time? What do you think?" Chloe asks enthusiastically. Gem expresses adoration in response to Chloe's phrase and asks if he can stick it in his back pocket to use later. They have to wait for the Grinders to open the cells and put them to work before they can take action. Using some of the parts he took, Gem creates three bombs to take out the three factory generators. They are programmed to go off by vocal command. The first bomb will go off when Chloe yells "It's Boom Time!" The second bomb will go off when Gem uses that phrase. The third bomb makes use of the same phrase, but it requires Chloe to finish the phrase when Gem starts it, likely because his sister, Gemma, often finished his sentences out of habit and he's having withdrawals without her around. Vesper tells her "slaves" to get ready for work. With her axe in hand, she opens the three cells containing the remaining Hyper Force Rangers and Gem. Eddie struggles to get to his feet but he's able to move on his own. He tries to talk to Vesper, but Vesper responds with a threat. Eddie doesn't relent, so Marv tackles Vesper to keep her from blasting Eddie. Jack reaches into his pocket to pull out his Time Force badge to confine Vesper, but he learns that it's among the items that have been taken from him. Realizing that their hands are tied for the moment, they decide to comply, and are led to their workspace. Within, they see the three generators to the left and the research lab entrance to the right. As Chloe and Gem plot to set up the bombs, the Rangers observe the civilian hostages as they work and gain a fair understanding of what they're meant to do. While he works the parts sorting line, Marv pilfers two knitting needles. He then attempts to begin the distraction, engaging in an improvised argument with Jack over how correctly he's doing his job. Marv flips a table to knock over some of the parts Jack is meant to sort. This draws the attention of six patrol Grinders. Once again, Gem draws inspiration from Marv and flips two tables to take out two of the Grinders. Unfortunately, this causes much more commotion, prompting an angered Vesper to threaten Eddie with her blaster. Marv tries to convince Vesper that he is on her side, but she doesn't believe him. Either they meet their Grinder quota or Eddie will find himself getting intimate with Vesper's Cerberus Axe. Marv continues to try and persuade Vesper, and Gem joins in, which only makes Marv's plea less convincing. Jack decides to take a more sophisticated approach to persuading Vesper, and she believes him, so she tasks Jack with monitoring the others. With a new role for him to play, he orders his cadets and "Jim" back to work. Marv discreetly hands Jack one of the knitting needles he took from the assemblage of parts. He then turns to Gem, asking why he didn't take advantage of the distraction. Gem was so caught up in the coolness of the table flip, he just had to join in. In that sense, an ideal distraction would be something uncool that Gem wouldn't want to mimic. With this knowledge in mind, Marv starts to feign sickness before making himself gag and vomit all over Vesper. Gem most assuredly doesn't want to copy that. The prisoners start laughing as their attention is drawn to this incident. Vesper calls the remaining four patrol Grinders over to clean her up. Now that the coast is clear, Gem and Chloe approach the generators and attach the bombs to them. They then yell out their vocal commands to trigger all three explosions, sharing a passionate high-five together as the generators blow up. All of the Grinders patrolling the area are sent into a frenzy as they try to assess the situation. A couple of Grinders wearing lab coats emerge from the research lab and flee, leaving the door open. Chloe and Gem use the force of the explosion and various objects in the factory to propel themselves through the air toward the lab entrance. Ranger Rule #1: A Ranger never escalates a situation. And that's just what Marv did. Vesper morphs to confront him. He tries to take his leave but she grabs him by his hood and drags him back towards her. Ranger Rule #2: You should always punch a person on his right shoulder? Vesper seems to enjoy this idea, so she does exactly that to Marv. Within the lab is a table upon which rests a group of translucent, colored boxes. Jack enters the room behind Chloe and Gem, noticing that four of the boxes contain the remaining Hyper Force Morphers. The other two, a gold box and a silver box, contain morphers he has never seen before. Jack uses his natural strength to pry open all of the boxes and collects all the morphers. He quickly heads back to help Eddie and Marv with Chloe deciding to follow him. Gem, however, remains behind to examine the contents of the laboratory. He comes across a piece of technology containing 8 cables tipped with 8 syringe-like needles. He starts to modify the device using the lab's tools. Ranger Rule #3: You shall flick a Ranger on his nose very gently? Nope. Rangers must always work together. In the spirit of camaraderie, Vesper tosses Marv at Eddie's feet. Jack arrives and delivers Eddie and Marv their morphers. Chloe has to forcefully take hers from Jack since he forgot about her. Eddie morphs and finds a Healing Charge ability within his morpher. He activates it and recovers some of his stamina. Amused since she now has some challenging opposition, Vesper attacks Chloe. As Marv morphs, Gem arrives with his device in hand. He asks Jack for his Gold morpher, and Jack hands it to him. Gem and Chloe morph next. The Rangers observe a red glint in Vesper's eyes from behind her visor. Gem explains that his device is intended to blow Vesper up, but the Hyper Force Rangers immediately protest. Eddie takes off his helmet and shows Vesper his wrench, attempting to talk to her again. His words seem to have some influence this time, as Vesper responds by falling to the ground and clutching her head. The red glint in her eyes starts to flicker. Marv asks Gem if they can instead use the device to target just the virus, and Gem makes some quick reconfigurations. Now repurposed to better suit their goals, the device will allow the Rangers to enter Vesper's mind. They each jam a needle protrusion into the back of their heads, also inserting one into Vesper's. After feeling horrible head pain, everyone loses consciousness. The Rangers find themselves in the metaphysical world of Vesper's mechanical mind. Their immediate surroundings appear to be a dark, empty void with huge black skyscrapers in the distance. Short pulses of light illuminate the area. Gem informs the Hyper Force Rangers that they need to find Vesper here in order to help her fight the virus. She has ultimate power in the world of her own mind, so they need to tread carefully. Within the alleyways between the skyscrapers, the Rangers can see thick, black tomes shifting about. The Rangers decide to follow the pulsing light as it heads deeper into the dark city of Vesper's mind. Along the way, Eddie grabs a tome to analyze it. It flips open and reveals a projection of one of Vesper's childhood memories. In the memory, 7-year-old Vesper was being picked on by some bullies for some robot dog toys she was creating. They then smashed one of the robot dogs. A young boy named Robert stuck up for her and the two of them fixed it together. Robert helped her open up and understand friendship, but unfortunately, he died in his youth and didn't grow up with Vesper. A red pulsing light rises beyond the horizon. The Rangers realize that it's Venjix, and Jack morphs as a precaution. They quickly follow the white lights of Vesper's memories and eventually come across Vesper, herself, surrounded by tomes. She's looking at the memory of Eddie asking her out on a date. Vesper tells the others that she can't control herself. She doesn't know what to do. Gem explains that her friends need to help reassure her of her strengths. They all put a reassuring hand on Vesper and Eddie pulls out his wrench once more. Vesper pulls out a copy of the wrench and the two share a fist bump, causing the two copies of the wrench to touch. As they do, they feel as though they're growing in their holders' hands, lifting Vesper's spirits. The menacing red light of Venjix fully rises over the horizon, informing the Rangers that they will all soon be under his control. Gem informs Vesper that she has complete control of what happens in her own head as if it were a lucid dream, so with a resounding cry of "It's Boom Time!" from herself and her allies, she dreams up some Vortex Blasters for her fellow Hyper Force Rangers and the "strange golden man." The six of them fire in unison, striking Venjix. With an angry growl, the virus fades back down beyond the horizon. Moments later, the Rangers wake up. Vesper has been completely restored to normal. She takes time to apologize to each of the others. Eddie dismisses it as a cool first date. Remembering that Jack still has his sister's morpher, Gem retrieves it from him. An alarm sounds and a voice rings out over the factory. "You must evacuate! Radiation levels might turn you into a lizard!" Jack asks who this person is over the audio system using a walkie talkie, and the voice reveals herself as M. She brought reinforcements to help liberate the prisoners from the factory. She just needs the Rangers to create a diversion. Fortunately, Gem still has a few more voice-activated bombs tucked away. Marv tosses one of the bombs toward a wall and yells out "It's Boom Time!" as it makes contact with the wall. The explosion destroys the wall and gives the Rangers an exit out into the wasteland. They can see M's reinforcements ahead, but they also see Grinders swarming out. The volunteers begin searching the factory for prisoners and shepherding them out as the Rangers take on the Grinders. Gem looks through the containment cells for his sister and finds the Winchester family trapped inside one. Eddie follows Gem to help out, using his wrench to pry off one bar so the Winchesters can slip through. Before Gem and Eddie can head back and join the others, they're confronted by Buzzkill, Generation 13 Attack Bot, a robot made almost entirely of buzz saws. The two Rangers do their best to fend off the robot, Gem seeming to enjoy being attacked. Eddie sticks one of Gem's bombs onto Buzzkill while he strikes with his Oceanus Trident. Once the Grinders have been dealt with, the others rush back inside to help Eddie and Gem. Marv uses his Iapetus Spear Launcher to jam the robot's saw blades and Vesper tries to strike Buzzkill with her Cerberus Axe, but misses. Chloe attaches Gem's two remaining bombs to her arrows and shoots them at Buzzkill's foot with her Hyperion Bow, triggering them with the voice command as they make contact, but they don't seem to damage the target. Venjix downloads enhancements into Buzzkill, causing the Attack Bot to grow in size until it towers over everyone. The Hyper Force Rangers don't know if they can summon their Zords, especially with Alpha out of commission. Gem demonstrates by calling upon his Falcon Zord, telling the Hyper Force Rangers to just use their hearts, to just believe. The Hyper Force Rangers call out for their Zords, and they appear. The Rangers engage Buzzkill with their individual Zords, but they don't seem to be damaging the robot very much, and it's able to deal some harsh damage to them. Gem informs the Rangers that they can combine their Zords into a Megazord by synchronizing their energy. They succeed with yet another vocal callout from Marv, which causes the Hyperzords to combine together into the Chronos Hyper Force Megazord. Gem flies around Buzzkill and attaches some bombs to it. The Megazord motions to kick Buzzkill as Gem fires some missiles at it to stun it. Kilobyte emerges from inside the factory to try and protect his Attack Bot, but in the process, he receives the kick as well. The Rangers yell "It's Boom Time" once more to trigger the bombs attached to Buzzkill, and both the miniscule Kilobyte and the massive Buzzkill are sent flying off several thousand miles into the distance. With the factory in shambles, Gem departs to go search for Gemma and help the civilians. The Hyper Force Rangers say their good-byes to the Gold Ranger before he leaves, then travel in the Megazord back to the time ship. The Megazord separates and the individual Hyperzords dock back into place. Vesper was able to connect a bit more closely to the Megazord since she's an android, so she thinks she can run the time ship and get her team back into their time stream. She inserts her hand into a control channel and the ship springs to life once again. The ship successfully drifts away and back into the river of time. Marv reassures Vesper privately that being different is okay. He, himself, is an alien from another planet. Vesper worries about her origins but Marv tells her that they'll figure it out together as a team. Meanwhile, Eddie and Chloe head into the kitchen to concoct a special new burrito called the Gemrito to honor their new friend. Cast *Peter Sudarso - Marvin Shih (HyperForce Red Ranger) *Andre Meadows - Eddie Banks (HyperForce Blue Ranger) *Paulie Schrier - Jack Dealgoode Thomas (HyperForce Yellow Ranger) *Cristina Vee - Vesper Vasquez (HyperForce Black Ranger) *Meghan Camarena - Chloe Ashford (HyperForce Pink Ranger) *Mike Ginn - Gem (Ranger Operator Series Gold) Errors * The system by which viewers could give the players energy was bugged, so that players could give Gem more energy than they actually had. This led to Gem getting sky high amounts of energy, at one point reaching more than 7 million points of energy. * Paul Schrier didn't seem to be aware that the Sky Morphers are flight sticks; he believed them to be wrist-mounted, having Jack compliment Gemma's morpher as a "great bracelet" as he handed it to Gem. * The way Gem's Zord was described in this episode was rather perplexing. Marketing referred to his zord as the Falcon Zord, and so it was labeled as such in this episode of Hyper Force. However, in the show, Flynn refers to Gem's Zord as a "giant flying chicken," and the Zord even makes clucking sounds. In addition, its Sentai counterpart, Engine Toripter, is unquestionably a chicken in Go-onger. Mike Ginn referred to it as a chicken Zord from the start, whereas Malika initially referred to it as the Falcon Zord before eventually referring to it as a chicken, leaving the lore of the American version of the Zord up in the air. Notes *This episode was delayed from its original airdate (December 5th, 2017) due to the California wildfires in the area, as this affected some of the cast and crew due to the large amounts of smoke in the area. *Gem is one of the first Disney Era Rangers to appear in HyperForce. **This episode's title is a reference to both Gem and Gemma's catchphrase whenever they want to blow things up. See Also *''to be added'' External links *Episode on YouTube *Episode VOD on Twitch (Exclusive to Hyper RPG subscribers) *Fireside Chat on Twitch (Exclusive to Hyper RPG subscribers)